The Kite Runner
Change in Amir
by
Gillian Anderson
First Impressions of Amir
• Powerful
– “If I asked, really asked, he wouldn’t deny me”
• Selfish
– denies Amir in a bid to gain acceptance from his
father
Chapter 13- Structural Mid-point
• Amir and Baba
– Closeness gained
• Amir and Soraya
– Happiness found
– Past haunts Amir at the thought of fatherhood
– Punishment for his sins
• “perhaps someone somewhere had decided to deny me
fatherhood for the things I had done”
Moral Quest- Redemption
Bring home Hassan’s son Sohrab to make
amends for both his own sins as well as Baba’s.
• Final phase
– “There is a way to be good again”
• Brotherhood
– Raises stakes for Amir
First Change
• Cowardly to Courageous
– Rahim Khan challenges Amir with Baba’s
words:
“A boy who can’t stand up for himself becomes a
man who can’t stand up for anything”
Second Change
• Flawed to Admirable
– Amir faces the challenge instead of running
away like before
• Atonement
– “Rahim Khan had summoned me here to
atone not just for my sins but for Baba’s too”
Contrast- Old to New
• Old Amir
– Denies Hassan three times
• New Amir
– Makes no attempt to hide the truth and admits
Hassan “was my half brother”
This idea resembles to biblical story of Peter
denying Jesus three times before his crucifixion
Final Change
• Redemption- Amir is finally free from guilt:
– “For the first time since the winter of 1975, I
felt at peace”
– “My body was broken…but I felt healed”
• Rahim Khan’s words
– “true redemption is when guilt leads to good”